PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Favre’s streak not the only one on the line in Foxboro this weekend

Glen Farley

Thursday

Oct 28, 2010 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2010 at 4:50 PM

Tom Brady has a streak of 23 straight regular-season home wins, two shy of the league record, for a team that has won four in a row this year and defeated NFC teams 15 consecutive times at Gillette Stadium dating back to 2002.

Streaks.

Brett Favre’s streak of 291 consecutive regular-season starts (315 including playoffs) won’t be the only one on the line when the Minnesota Vikings play the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Tom Brady has won 23 straight regular-season starts at Gillette – a streak that is two shy of the NFL record for most consecutive home wins by a starting quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

Brady last lost a home game in Foxboro on Nov. 12, 2006, when he was sacked four times and intercepted once in a 17-14 loss to the New York Jets.

The post-merger record of 25 consecutive home wins, coincidentally enough, is held by Favre, who accomplished the feat with Green Bay from 1995-1998.

“Not at all, really,” Brady answered when asked Wednesday if he thought of his streak of 23 straight. “I love playing at home. I guess there’s quite a few things you can do at home that you don’t necessarily do on the road, but I don’t think about that much.

“We’ve had pretty good success at home since I’ve been here, since I got to the team in 2000, but we’ve just got to play good football. I think that’s why those streaks continue – because you’re executing well. You’re not going to win just because you’re playing at home. You’re going to win because you’re playing well.”

The Patriots are 15-1 all-time against NFC teams since Gillette opened, and have a 15-game winning streak since they dropped the very first game against an out-of-conference foe at the stadium, 28-10, to Favre’s Packers on Oct. 13, 2002.

Most significant of all, though, said Brady is the fact that the Patriots have won four in a row this year.

“No question,” said Brady. “Sitting here at 5-1 … Coach (Bill) Belichick said the other day, ‘Five wins won’t get you anything in this league.’ Which is true. So we’ve got to win a lot more than five games.

“When you see the Vikings on the schedule and what they accomplished last year as a team (going to the NFC Championship Game) and the kind of players that they have on their team, they’re very dangerous and we’re going to expect them to come out there and play very well so we’ve got to counter that.”

Brady expressed admiration for the streak of consecutive starts Favre has put together dating back to 1992 – a streak that is in jeopardy with the 41-year-old quarterback nursing two fractures in his left ankle. Favre did not practice Wednesday, held out with what the team officially reported to be a foot/ankle injury.

“What he’s done over the course of his career is remarkable,” said Brady, who had a streak of 128 consecutive regular-season and playoff starts dating back to 2001 snapped when Kansas City’s Bernard Pollard took out his left knee on a safety blitz in the 2008 opener at Gillette. “It’s not like he hasn’t gotten hit.

“You watch him play and he plays a style of football where he does get hit, but he’s just as tough as any player that there’s ever been. He shows up every week and he plays at an extremely high level every week. He’s phenomenal.”

Practice report: Five Patriots did not take part in practice Wednesday, four of them for injury-related reasons.

While nose tackle Vince Wilfork’s non-participation (termed “non-injury related”) didn’t fall in that category, safeties Patrick Chung (knee) and Jarrad Page (calf), wide receiver Matthew Slater (ankle) and running back Fred Taylor (toe) did not take part due to the fact that they are all banged up at the present time.

Brady was listed with his weekly right shoulder injury, but again he participated fully in practice.

Along with Favre, the Vikings held guard Steve Hutchinson (quadriceps) out of practice Wednesday.